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Novica & Invited Guest Contributors Tips & Product Reviews Pt 4

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  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,654
    edited December 1969

    Nice job on fw cassie. I also really like planet lava... although I haven't been real successful adding figures to that scene... way dark. I see there are more ladies outfits in the store. I've been hoping for a male cowboy outfit.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    Desertlands Pak for WorldBase XT (Magix 101)
    http://www.daz3d.com/desertlands-pak-for-worldbase-xt

    Showing a few of the sky options and varied terrain. Renders fast, 50% at 25 seconds and 60% at 40 seconds, etc.

    These would really look nice with depth of field. Very expansive feel, your "in the distance" would make your scene seem very large.

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  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    SereneNight said:
    Nice job on fw cassie. I also really like planet lava... although I haven't been real successful adding figures to that scene... way dark. I see there are more ladies outfits in the store. I've been hoping for a male cowboy outfit.

    Yeah, I'm saving a LOT of money. Women, women, women. There hasn't been a lot of work clothes, helmets, utility stuff for males, and can't recall if there's been swimwear, goggles, jewelry for the Gen2 males.

    I bet there's a lot of place to put people on Planet Lava, lol! SO many nooks, so little time... :)

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    Snowlands Pak For Worldbase XT (Magix 101)
    http://www.daz3d.com/snowlands-pak-for-worldbase-xt

    One thing I am not liking are the stripes in the ground in the distant sections on each of these- like rows. Not very natural. If you have a props/buildings, it won't be that noticeable.

    SnowlandsWorldbase3.jpg
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    SnowlandsWorldbase2.jpg
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    SnowlandsWorldbase1.jpg
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  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    SereneNight said:
    I also really like planet lava... although I haven't been real successful adding figures to that scene... way dark.

    You got me curious. I just loaded David 5 into that set and will render using the default lights- and then with one of our favorite lightsets :) I'll see what happens. I know I changed the DoorLight from Deep Shadow Map to Raytraced because the studio sat and spun for a bit to process the Shadow Map (which I don't use anyway.)

    It's coming in dark but kinda cool :) Will take a bit.

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,654
    edited April 2014

    I'm going to boot it up tonight ans see what I can do with it. Granted, not sure most humans could live that close to a hot glowing lava bed, but this is sci-fi so there is probably a force field or something. I did try to render a few characters there, but it looked funny. I may try again and see.

    I love fantastic scenes, but if I can't manage to put a character in it, or the lighting looks bad with figures, I don't tend to use it.

    Worldbase XT offered a lot of promise to me. I love the skies. The PA really did an excellent job there. I have real trouble with the ground though that looks repetitive and video-gamey. There is also the problem that using different lighting brings out the dreaded rings in the scene.

    Post edited by Serene Night on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited April 2014

    Here's good ole David running (Haunted House pose- I'd personally change that front foot) with what rendered using default lights, then corel photo paint with just intensity and brightness adjusted.

    I'm going to test Enchanted Island lights on it, because that's what I happen to be on while working in the studio. :)

    EDIT: Enchanted Island (evening) is coming in dark and blue on the default. I'm testing these without changing the light settings, then will brighten. And I know the sash is going through the leg, I'm just testing lights and didn't want a nude dude.

    Planet_Lava_David5J.Scout2_.png
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    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited April 2014

    Ooh, I likee. Coming along.
    Not the default Enchanted Island (first image) but the second one, with a very slight tweak postwork for brightness and intensity.
    BTW, my figure is at 0 / 2.98 / 0 so it's at World Center. The figures load into Planet Lava at the location shown, so if you like Enchanted Island, without moving the lights, this is what you'll get.

    Here's the Enchanted Island settings for the second render:
    UE2 is 33.4 (will be increasing that) at 74.1 intensity scale, everything else stayed the same. Increasing to 60 intensity / 80 intensity scale
    Specular Only Spot changed to orange 254 /201 / 139 at 60% intensity, going to increase that too
    I think I left Moonlight the same, but it's all white at 93.3% so testing at orange at 128%
    Inifinite light was left alone I think (a pale peach) at 30%, going to 50%

    EDIT: for newbies, if you see those squares of light, that means you have a Deep Shadow Map for shadows in one of the lights. Those are called artifacts. Change over to Raytraced. (See the blue square?)

    Planet_Lava_David5EncIsland2.jpg
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    Planet_Lava_David5EncIsland.jpg
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    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited April 2014

    Interesting- and I left it in so you'd see it- the blue artifact disappeared and a pink one appeared in a different location. So those little suckers move around when you change the intensities. (Edit- it's the Infinite Light, change it to Raytraced. So both the Door Light and that one.)

    Anyway, here's the final test shot. I also took off that blasted sash and moved the front foot, I couldn't stand it anymore (but didn't change the top of the boot, which looks funky! It's for M4, not Gen5) So Enchanted Island Evening works really well, just brighten it. You can also try the daylight lights. Looking forward to SereneNight's piddlin' around with Planet Lava. Anyone else have renders with it?

    Planet_Lava_David5EncIsland3.jpg
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    Post edited by Novica on
  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,654
    edited December 1969

    Looks good Novica. I like your David fleeing Planet Lava. Mines rendering now. Trying to retexture something to see if I like it better.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    So now I'm playing with putting an orange linear point light on OUR left, to give him an orange glow. I am lower the UE2, spotlight, and overhead light. The graphic gives you the location, but ignore the intensity- it was too bright. It will be 140 percent.

    planetLavaDav5LinearPt.png
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  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    SereneNight said:
    Looks good Novica. I like your David fleeing Planet Lava. Mines rendering now. Trying to retexture something to see if I like it better.

    Excited to see it! I'm putzing with adding back an orange glow, like the original had.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    Okay, it could be further tweaked but it's a start. The point light location (XYZ) is -187.76 / 125.13 / 66.82 with Genesis at the coordinates already given (just use World Center.) I'd turn the intensity down a bit more, probably to 36-40 percent.

    Planet_Lava_David5OrangeGlowA.png
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  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,654
    edited April 2014

    Here is Gianni in the Planet Lava.

    Lights used here came with medieval morphing dress. If you haven't tried them, they produce an interesting red light. Just make sure to increase the bias on your UE2, or there will be grid lines on your skydome.

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    Post edited by Serene Night on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    That turned out wonderfully!

  • AJ2112AJ2112 Posts: 1,416
    edited April 2014

    Although I rarely comment, I do visit your thread daily. Thanx for all you've shared, I've learned quite alot, also enjoy your product reviews.

    Landscape renders are awesome ! I luv viewing landscapes. Keep up the great job Cathie :-)

    Novica said:
    Snowlands Pak For Worldbase XT (Magix 101)
    http://www.daz3d.com/snowlands-pak-for-worldbase-xt

    One thing I am not liking are the stripes in the ground in the distant sections on each of these- like rows. Not very natural. If you have a props/buildings, it won't be that noticeable.

    Post edited by AJ2112 on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    Tropical Quest (Andrey Pestryakov)
    http://www.daz3d.com/tropical-quest

    Still customizing studio, doing quickie renders to see details so I'll know/keep in mind certain sets. These are Tropical Quest, with the lighting that comes with it. Renders fast but when you add shadows, it slows down a lot. There are a LOT of lights and this is out of the box. The cliffs would be good for closeup scenes. I would personally add details to the foam splash at the bottom, too much white for me, and do something with the bump/displacement of the falls. Tropical Quest fits with other sets in the Tropical series.

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    tropical_quest_mountain.jpg
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  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    Likewise- I like your characters. If thread viewers want to see some really pretty windblown hair, take a peek at awesomefb's first post. And there's some cute dolphins with only one spotlight that are rather frisky. It shows what can be done with one light.

    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/40160/

    I'm pretty much just showing "out of the box" for tonight and this week, as I'm plopping things in the viewport and doing quickie renders to see if I want to catalog things separately (aka, checking out rocks, grass plots, mountain parts, etc.) The benefit of that is, you'll get to see a lot more samples of products and I can also tell you how fast they render "out of the box."

    The way I am organizing my studio worked out nicely. As I mentioned, by putting ! in front of the name (aka !Characters) it keeps it at the top. For Categories, I have Characters, Clothing, Expressions, Hair, Locations, Poses.

    Now, for Locations- this keeps you from having so many prop categories. Where would you find a cactus? Southwestern Items? I just put all the products in Location>Desert and that gets everything all at one place. For props, I pull out the best of the best (say, for Rocks, Vegetation>Ivy, Flower Pots, etc) as they are in the first tier after Default. Locations requires an additional click.

    With thousands of products, it could have been mind boggling to organize, but for scenes/sets, I went to Shop and chose Landscapes from Environments and Props.

    Here's what I am categorizing, so if anyone wants to see any parts of these, I do have them installed and organizing them. I'll be doing some of these tonight anyway. Anyone else who has something on this list, feel free to share. (Yes, open invitation for this list. You don't have to be an Invited Guest Contributor on these.)

    Tropical Cave / Elements / Plateau / Coast / Quest Jungle
    Hilly Surround
    Return To Enchanted Forest
    The Secret Garden / Graveyard / Cloister
    Old Cemetery
    The Steppes Rock Outcrops
    Warzone
    Winter Kingdom Castle Ruins
    Rocky Outcrop
    Palantiliths
    Neitherhenge
    BeachCorner
    Wood Chopping Kit
    Stone Accents-Fences
    Vista Viewer
    A Stage for Dionysus
    Sun Hawk Camp

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited April 2014

    Tropical Cave (Andrey Pestryakov)
    http://www.daz3d.com/tropical-cave

    When you load Tropical Cave, you're on the outside of it. Rendered with the included lights, out of the box EXCEPT- changed two shadow maps to raytraced. There are 24 Ambient Lights! Two spotlights. The Deep Shadow Map ones are the two spotlights.

    One thing I saw is I can use the outside of the cave as a mountain wall backdrop.

    900 pixels large, .20 shading rate, all other settings are on very good/excellent:

    50% at 3 min 15 sec
    70% 4 min 15 sec
    90% 5 min
    Done 5 min 15 sec

    Second shot is still on the outside, but now looking down the hole. 6 min 30 seconds for 65%, so it's slower. At 7 minutes, only 67%. So once you hit the lower part of the render, it will slow down. (If you render horizontally.) Looking at it, it's the tree over to our right, directly below the beige colored root. That took four minutes!

    14 minutes for 95%
    14 minutes 20 seconds done.

    Last one will be from inside the hole looking out. Working on it.

    These are all brightly lit, I did not intensify, contrast, or lighten at all.

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    Post edited by Novica on
  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,370
    edited December 1969

    Novica said:
    Tropical Cave (Andrey Pestryakov)
    http://www.daz3d.com/tropical-cave

    When you load Tropical Cave, you're on the outside of it. Rendered with the included lights, out of the box EXCEPT- changed two shadow maps to raytraced. There are 24 Ambient Lights! Two spotlights. The Deep Shadow Map ones are the two spotlights.

    One thing I saw is I can use the outside of the cave as a mountain wall backdrop.

    900 pixels large, .20 shading rate, all other settings are on very good/excellent:

    50% at 3 min 15 sec
    70% 4 min 15 sec
    90% 5 min
    Done 5 min 15 sec

    Second shot is still on the outside, but now looking down the hole. 6 min 30 seconds for 65%, so it's slower. At 7 minutes, only 67%. So once you hit the lower part of the render, it will slow down. (If you render horizontally.) Looking at it, it's the tree over to our right, directly below the beige colored root. That took four minutes!

    14 minutes for 95%
    14 minutes 20 seconds done.

    Last one will be from inside the hole looking out. Working on it.

    These are all brightly lit, I did not intensify, contrast, or lighten at all.


    I recognize Tropical Cave. I used it in this old RRRR. I don't remember what lighting I used, though.
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    Cerella (vyktohria)
    Teen Angst Poses and Expressions (Pose 02) (Canary3d)
    Isla Hair (Valea)
    Breezy Wear ( DAZ 3D / Bobbie25 / Sarsa / Umblefugly)

    http://www.daz3d.com/cerella-for-genesis
    http://www.daz3d.com/teen-angst-poses-and-expressions
    http://www.daz3d.com/isla-character-and-hair
    http://www.daz3d.com/breezy-wear

    Barbult- Love the mushrooms!
    I'm glad I rendered the cave with a person in it, this is with the default lights, no tweaking, and it works very nicely. This shows a different view, but exact same location. Don't ask what she's doing there or why she's wearing a not-for-a-cave outfit- I wanted you to see the skin.

    I do not like the surface of the rock she is sitting on, definitely needs some bump/displacement. It's hard to tell that she's really on it (she is, I lowered her up and down and zoomed in.)

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  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    Tip: here's the coordinates for the Genesis figure, if you like those light results. This is the XYZ translation: 1760.10 / 4.12 / -2207
    XYZ rotation is 0 / -145.77 / 0

    I think you can get some gorgeous renders by softening the light, adding color, and adding shadows.

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,654
    edited December 1969

    I think tropical cave looks nice for distance work but the rocks just look too low resolution.

    I like my rocks to look good close up since that's the way I tend to render... Closeup shots.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    SereneNight said:
    I think tropical cave looks nice for distance work but the rocks just look too low resolution.

    I like my rocks to look good close up since that's the way I tend to render... Closeup shots.

    Yep. :)

    The cave is large though, and you can easily put your characters in the middle and use depth of field. The vegetation appears to be okay.
    Another thing I don't like is the "floating boulders." It's because of the lower polygon larger areas that are blurry, the rocks don't look nestled into the surface. I am doing a render showing some of the lights turned off, and deliberately put the camera angle so folks can see the "floaters." Coming up.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited April 2014

    Okay, look behind her. That rock is supposedly laying on the surface. Not. (Click to enlarge, click again. I didn't want to brighten the image.)

    Ambient lights 1,2,7,8, 10, 17 and light 1 were turned off. Other lights were not tweaked. Just playin' around. (And now back to working on the studio.)

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    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited April 2014

    Flash sale, 60%. Currently, ignore what it says in the gallery, when you click on them, they show the price. (EDIT: Shows in the gallery now, they fixed it.) On the Swam hair products, the ones I recommend and use often:
    Estal Hair
    Audrina Hair
    Yunko Hair (yes, it looks funky but fun!)
    Taylor Hair
    Pyrit Hai
    Edit: also Nordic Hair
    and I also use Lanny Hair. Just featured it recently.

    http://www.daz3d.com/muscleman
    http://www.daz3d.com/swam
    http://www.daz3d.com/xena

    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    Heads up, gift cards are on sale today, so before you stock up on the 60%, think about getting the discounted gift certificates for yourself and use them. The 50 dollar one is 4% and it goes up from there.

  • KharmaKharma Posts: 3,214
    edited December 1969

    Novica said:
    Heads up, gift cards are on sale today, so before you stock up on the 60%, think about getting the discounted gift certificates for yourself and use them. The 50 dollar one is 4% and it goes up from there.

    Thanks for the heads up on gift cards, maybe a big sale coming up or something that they are on sale? I always get the 200.00 GC that way I get 32.00 of free stuff and then I stretch it as far as possible...lol. This one should go a ways as I haven't been buying much lately.

    I too, am still organizing my library and have about 1000 items to still install, I am trying to figure out the best way to organize props, scenery and architectural type products.

    Love the new reviews you've done, of course adding a few to my wishlist as I peruse through the thread :)

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    You're welcome :) Of course, I had waited to see what banners were rotating, bought about $50 of the stuff, THEN the gift certificate came up. Sheesh. I had waited an hour and was headed to bed, and since they were flash sales, I couldn't wait till the morning. Flash sales usually are half a day, but my luck, it would be the first time they weren't and I would miss out. (and of course they are still going.)

    Tropical Elements (Andrey Pestryakov)
    http://www.daz3d.com/tropical-elements

    One product that I can't 100% recommend, just maybe parts of it- is Tropical Elements. The tree bark is just plain WRONG. Like the cave, the plants are fine. Some of the rocks are fine, some aren't, they're blurry.

    And OMGosh, what on earth? I thought I'd use The Fabricator on those tree trunks (Boucle would be an improvement) and look what it did! The brown is the Boucle. It put green squares with the palm leaves into the trunk! So I don't think you can use shaders and change the trunks. But you can keep it in mind if you want weird FANTASY trees, lol.

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  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited April 2014

    Testing other shaders, Totally Bazaar 1 Dark Coir.

    Second, which is what I'd probably use-Totally Bazaar 1, Jute.
    Jute, tiled "very small" (25) and changed diffuse to 195/195/195

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    Post edited by Novica on
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